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Monday, 24 November 2014

Hello and welcome back to another challenge at Crafty Boots Challenges.

The dark evenings are longer and it is definitely colder here in the UK. A month today it will be Christmas Eve. There will be just a few hours for any last minute shopping but most of us will hope to have sent all of our cards, wrapped our presents and put up decorations. The night sky seems to be full of stars on clear nights and when we get up in the morning we look for signs of frost.

The theme of the challenge for the next two weeks is 'Stars'. It could be those bright stars filling our night sky, or the sort we associate with decorations, or it could even be those we watch on the silver screen. Whatever you associate with stars we should like to see in your projects.

Monday, 17 November 2014

A few weeks ago we ran a very special event to celebrate our third anniversary. The prize for the winner and the two runners up was to join the Crafty Boots Design Team for the 'Remembrance' challenge.

There were so many entrants and the standard was exceptionally high, the team found it so hard to narrow down their selection to just three, but we eventually got there.

We are delighted to be able to introduce Ulla, Julie and Pamellia and their breathtaking work, please make sure you take the time to visit their blogs. Ladies it is an honour to have you as part of our team and to work along side you, you are all amazing.

My name is Julie and I live in Sydney Australia, I love to create cards and 3D projects in the Shabby Chic style, I teach Copic colouring in my local craft store and am on a number of Design Teams. I spend most of my free time crafting but also enjoy cooking and cake decorating. I am honoured to be creating a card today as GDT for Crafty Boots and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did creating it for you.

Hello Everyone! My name is Pamellia Johnson and I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my wonderful husband and our two little girls, Scully (a teacup Maltese) and Pebbles (a teacup black Pomeranian).

Creativity runs in my family, so it's no surprise that I enjoy crafting. I have been crafting in some form or another ever since I was a little kid, thanks to my very creative and talented Mom. I've dabbled in all sorts of crafts, but I think my true passion is making handmade cards. I enjoy all sorts of styles, but my favourite is shabby chic! I just love the soft muted colours, the big shabby bows and the frilly laces.

When I was contacted about being a Guest Designer, I was just thrilled and when they told me the theme is Remembrance, I knew I wanted to do something special for my Mom. When I was five years old, our farmhouse burnt to the ground and my Mom lost every photo she had of me. I have collected some copies of photos from extended family and put together this frame, so Mom will have something to remember my childhood. I hope you like my Remembrance Frame.

Thank you so much to the Crafty Boots team for inviting me to spend the day with them. I am thrilled and honoured to be here with such a talented group of artists.

Thank you so much ladies, your work is breathtaking and we really could not have chosen three more talented winners.

Crafty Boots has had such a wonderful time getting to know our Guest Designers and we do not want the fun to stop here. We are going to make this a regular feature in future.

Just a quick reminder that the current Crafty Boots challenge is 'Remembrance', this challenge will remain open until noon on Sunday, 23 November. Please click here to go directly to the challenge.

The Design Team seem somewhat obsessed with images of red poppies at the moment, but this Challenge is about so much more than remembering those who died in the First World War. It is about remembering all of the wonderful people in our lives and also those special times and we would love to see your scrapbook pages, your anniversary cards and much, much more.

The inspiration for our Remembrance Challenge just keeps coming, here are a few more projects from our hard working Design Team:

Monday, 10 November 2014

Every so often something comes along that captures the imagination and hearts of the nation, the London Olympics, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, and currently, 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' - the art installation at the Tower of London. The sight of the 888,246 ceramic poppies which now fill the Tower's moat is so powerful and deeply moving. Each poppy represents a British military death during the First World War and the poppies now completely encircle this iconic landmark, it's size is impossible to capture on a single photograph.

Several of the Crafty Boots Design Team have been to see their poppies and I should like to thank Helen L for allowing us the reproduce some of her stunning photographs.

Which brings me to the theme of our brand new challenge 'Remembrance'. Whilst for many of us this word will conjure up images of war and heroism and the gratitude of a nation and, yes, of beautiful red poppies, for others it will mean many, many other things, of days at the beach and a favourite moment in time or a loved one.

We would like to see whatever image this forceful word means to you. Here a a few inspirational projects from our Design Team.

Monday, 3 November 2014

There has been quite a buzz around the Crafty Boots Challenges office recently and at last we can share our exciting news with you. We are delighted to announce that Chris Parker-Barnes has agreed to join our Design Team.

Many of you will already know that Chris lives in New South Wales, Australia with her husband and 8 year old son, whom she homeschools. Chris says that the winters in NSW can be very cold but the summers more than make up for it by being very hot.

Chris has a very busy life and as well as homeschooling her son and crafting, she teaches piano and clarinet. In her free time Chris enjoys swimming, bushwalking, going to the beach, and creating Raw Vegan recipes.

A very big Crafty Boots welcome to Chris, we know you are going to love her work as much as we do, why not pop over to her blog and let her know.

By coincidence our current Challenge is 'Music' and Chris has made several fabulous projects to inspire you: